Bittersweet
by Nanaharuneko
Summary: Kyoko and Haru have never tasted such a harsh fate. Can Tsuna solve this mystery, and save the girls? Little crossover surprise. Might be OOC. One-shot.


Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, though if I did, the manga and anime would be still ongoing...

 _Italic: Tsuna's thoughts_

(in parentheses): authoress meddling/commenting

* * *

Somewhere in Namimori a fluffy tiny yellow bird flew through the azure sky, chirping: "Midori tanabiku Namimori no...~"

It was supposed to be the perfect day. (Maybe in a perfect world.)

At least for Haru and Kyoko. But, as fate loves to twist reality, it turned into a real nightmare.

As Tsuna walked along the Namimori Shopping District, in order to escape a certain sadistic home tutor, he saw the two girls in front of the pastry – both with a horrified expression on their faces that made Tsuna stomach turn inside out.

Tsuna already expecting the worst, mumbled to himself: "What on earth did happen to them". The aura the girls were emanating made him feel utterly devastated.

"OUCH!"

Out of nowhere a sudden hit aimed at the head of the brunet, made him lose his balance and tumble with a thud on the concrete. Not even looking up, while massaging the hurt spot on his head, Tsuna grumbled: "What was THAT now for, Reborn!?"

"I felt like it", was Reborn's smug answer... Inwardly, Tsuna laughed sardonically … _I shouldn't have asked..._ "Dame-Tsuna," Reborn began in his teaching voice, "your stealth skills are getting better, BUT-"

"-to escape unnoticed from Reborn-'sama' is a hundred years to early", Tsuna finished the sentence nonchalantly with a hint of irony, what got him a more than annoyed look and another smack from his tutor.

 _Though, getting a 'praise' from Reborn is really a rarity – is the apocalypse finally approaching? ... Well, with this at least, I can't become the Vongola Dec-_

WHACK

WHACK

WHACK

"REBORN, DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME?!"

"Tsuna, you should stop thinking so much – it doesn't suit you." _Oh, thank you very much, never heard something like private sphere … my thoughts should be off limits … honestly..._

"I'll ignore this for now, Dame-Tsuna. We have a serious situation with the girls over there." _Great, so I just served as the side kick, to loosening up the brooding tension..._ Reborn raised an eyebrow, glancing menacingly at his hopeless student.

"HIIEE! I am really sorry, Reborn!"

"It's time to check what happened to Kyoko and Haru, it looks very promis- eh troublesome", Reborn corrected himself when catching Tsuna incredulous look.

After reaching the girls, Reborn neatly nestled himself on Tsuna's fluffy brown hair, the eye of the-soon-to-be-Decimo/Neo-Primo – _I did not sign up for this! I refuse to be a maf-_ (Shush, shush, now my Cutie – life never asks) – caught sight with a note hanging on the pastry's door. It read in beautiful calligraphic letters:

 _Dear customers,_

 _Our most sincerely apologies,_

 _with heavy hearts we need to_

 _bid farewell to you._

 _Due to supply problems_

 _we were forced to close this_

 _facility._

 _It is unknown whether_

 _a re-opening will ever be possible_

 _Forever yours,_

 _The pastry team_

Finished reading the message, Tsuna tried to greet his friends, but it seemed that neither Nami-chuu's idol nor the Namahage's best cosplayer noticed his presence. So shocked the two must have been.

"Hahi, Kyoko-chan, what should we do now? This is dangerous." Haru turned to her friend tears filling her eyes. Kyoko's eyes were also already brimming with moisture. She shook her gold brown hair and said in a stricken voice: "I-I … really don't know." They were at a total loss.

Watching form the sideline the whole scene was somewhat comedic, but even so in the inside Tsuna was being cut into little pieces, witnessing Haru and _especially_ Kyoko suffering so much. (Give up, Tsuna, give up!) _Hey, at least let me have my crush_ \- (Stop sulking, you just should realize unless you turn into her brother, you have no chance~)

Suddenly, Reborn raised his voice. Getting all the wanted attention, he stated: "My dear ladies, this is a wonderful opportunity for my student to prove himself and his worth to be the next Mafia boss-"

"Hell, no way I'm going to-", ignoring the interruption Reborn continued, "He'll definitely find a way to save your sweet dreams."

"Wait. WHAT!?-"

"Tsuna-kun!"

"Tsuna-san!"

Said both girls in unison with big brilliant eyes, looking at him like lost puppies. Without any warning Kyoko and Haru glomped Tsuna. "I already love you, Tsuna-san! If you save the cakes you will be my eternal hero", Haru dramatically proclaimed. "If someone can solve this problem, it has to be Tsuna-kun!", Kyoko added.

Tsuna tried to swallow the bubbling panic steadily building up inside him. _Oh God, why is it always me? WHY!? Fate must hate me._

"Haru...Kyoko-chan...I don't...kno-" Tsuna stopped mid-sentence, horror stroke at the new arrival approaching them.

Smirking, Reborn's trump card had arrived. On a motorcycle loaded with tons of delicious looking cakes, a beautiful woman appeared. As soon as she noticed Reborn, she tried to hug and kiss him – an attempt which obviously failed, being Reborn's evading skills insuperable.

"Reborn!", the woman said in a very affectionately. "Bianchi, you came on time and you brought the requested items."

"For you, I would go to the end of the world!", Bianchi hopefully exclaimed.

"HIIEEE! What is Bianchi doing here?" Tsuna had already a foreboding feeling while eyeing the mountain of cakes she brought... _This is not true … Reborn wouldn't do such a thing … Scratch that … of course he'll do that..._

"You're completely right, Tsuna!", Reborn smiled like sunshine and rainbows, promising death and torture. "I called Bianchi to make some cakes to cheer Haru and Kyoko a bit up."

Disbelieving, the brunet stared at his teacher and gasped: "You know what Bianchi cooks can't be served to my friends! Her food is poi-"

"Tsuna-kun, that is not a very nice thing to say", Kyoko interjected. Haru agreed: "I can't believe that Tsuna-san is such a person, Reborn and Bianchi just wanted to help, for which we're very grateful, aren't we Kyoko-chan?" The girl nodded: "That's true."

Tsuna was getting desperate, seeing the happy and joyful sparks in Kyoko and Haru's eyes, knowing it would soon lead to hospitalization.

"You really should learn some manners, and respect your seniors, Dame-Tsuna! Your friends are a very good example."

 _Damn you, Reborn..._

But the sky guardian had already found his needed resolve. _Even if it kills me, I can't allow this to happen!_

"Kyoko-chan! Haru! Please, you shouldn't eat Bianchi's cakes! But I will find out the reason for the pastry's closing. It's a promise!"

Shaded by his fedora, Reborn smirked hopping onto the tower of (poised) cakes. After inspecting the bakery products with a swift glance, he declared: "Well, Bianchi, it seems your pastries as mouthwatering as they might look – are past their expiry date!"

Poison Cooking Scorpion's eyes widened in _faked?_ surprise, she gasped: "Oh dear! As expected of the world's best hitman, no detail escapes Reborn's field of vision. So, girls I'm really sorry and this is kind of embarrassing, but I can't let you have my cakes." Biding farewell, Bianchi left on her motorcycle with all the deadly pastries.

Tsuna sighing in a short-lived relieve, since now he had to find a way out of this mess, looking at his friends he said: "How about us stopping by TakeSushi?" _Yamamoto is always good in cheering up a gloomy mood..._

This idea received nods of agreement, who wouldn't like the food Yamamoto's father served. Even Reborn approved the brunt's suggestion, commenting:"A good tactic, indeed. There we can plan our investigation, while enjoying Tsuyoshi's culinary art."

 _Another praise from Reborn … something must be truly wrong with the world today ... wait … one day I'm going to get you! Even if it'll take forever..._

Upon arriving at Yamamoto's place, Tsuna's intuition of sheer dread had just grown stronger. His sadistic tutor send from hell had definitely set something up, and he wasn't really eager to find out what it was. Though, on this matter he had no choice at all. _Sigh._

On their way, a grenade came flying in the hit-man's direction. But Reborn being Reborn easily got rid of the incoming projectile as if it was nothing. Chaos ensued nonetheless. Wailing on top of his lungs, no one other than five-year-old Lambo came running towards them. "BUWAHAHAHA. REBORN IS GOING TO PAY FOR ALL THE CANDIES HE STOLE FROM LAMBO-SAMA!" Taking more and more grenades out of his afro, the young Bovino threw them haphazardly in all possible directions. _Oh no, I can't do anything to protect Kyoko-chan and Haru_ , Tsuna thought full of regret. But quickly Leon transformed into a gun loaded with a dying will bullet and the sun arcobaleno aimed a precise shot at his student. "Do something, Dame Tsuna." With a kick Reborn send his student to the battlefield. "REBORN!", Tsuna screamed bursting out of his clothes minus boxers that had a nice pattern of strawberries and in a flash he caught all weapons without causing to much havoc.

"Lambo-chan!" Kyoko and Haru exclaimed. "You shouldn't play with such dangerous toys!", Haru admonished him. Lambo looking all watery-eyed, sniffed. "But- but … where are La-Lambo-san's candies-ies?- sniff- E-even...Mama has no ... no morre, a-and no-o shoh-p as weehhll...Gotta stay calmmm...but-"

At this, Reborn started. Thinking to himself: 'Indeed. If this continues...'

Tsuna, glad that he had taken an extra jersey and trousers with him today for the possibility of ending up half-naked, cradled Lambo in his arms to calm the little boy down and said soothingly: "Lambo, everything is going to be all right. Haru and Kyoko-chan are also looking for sweets. And, together we'll be able to get some candies for you as well. Okay? Now we're heading to Yamamoto's place, then." Tsuna smiled at his lightning guardian, who exhausted form the fight and all screaming, just nodded.

Surprisingly, the atmosphere at TakeSushi's wasn't so bright. When the girls, Lambo and Reborn had taken a comfortable seat around a table, Tsuna went over to Yamamoto, who was now helping out his father preparing dishes, and asked: "Hi, Yamamoto! Is everything okay? Your father and you seem, how can I put it...", he scratched his head trying to find the right word, "... flabbergasted." Startled the baseball idol looked at his friend, embarrassed. "Oh, Tsuna, hello! I didn't notice you guys coming in. Ha ha ha." The rain guardian averted his eyes, scratching his back in an apologetic manner. But then taking a serious expression, he said: "Well, you know, actually, we are quite trou-".

Yamamoto wasn't allowed to finish his sentence because all of a sudden, someone charged at him, seizing his collar rather violently. "YAKYUU BAKA! TEME! WHATHAVEYOUDONEWITHJUUDAIME!?" Screaming, the intruder pulled a bunch of ignited dynamites ready to strike at any given moment. In the last minute, while Tsuna, already in HDMW thanks to the pills (being totally bad-ass and awesome), was able to defuse all dynamites, he addressed the assailant with a commanding demeanour: "Calm down, Hayato."

Stormy green eyes met flame orange coloured ones.

Gokudera dropped to his knees, all aggression evaporating as he faced his precious boss. "I'M SO TERRIBLY SORRY JUUDAIME...NOT WORTH AT ALL AS YOUR RIGHT HAND MAN!" The storm guardian began to sob, banging his head on the floor all in dogeza fashion.

Sighing, Tsuna (again back to normal being cute) put a hand on Smoking Bomb Hayato's shoulder. "It's all right, Gokudera-kun." The small brunet offered a smile to his silver haired friend. "JUUUDAIIMMMEEE!" Gokudera choked, puppy-like eyes shining brightly at him. Tsuna sweat dropped.

"Ma ma, now that this is settled," said Yamamoto, "how about explaining yourself, Gokudera?" Tsuna joined in: "I also want to know that." Seeing the slight hurt in Yamamoto's brown eyes, Gokudera averted his gaze and mumbled an incomprehensible apology. Feeling somewhat awful he began to confess: "Juudaime, actually I received information form Reborn-san that someone had kidnapped you. And, it was my mission to find the culprit. Throughout Namimori there were various hints which made me come to the conclusion that Juudaime was held captive by the baseball freak..." On the brink of beginning another litany of apologies, Gokudera was _thankfully_ stopped, before he could even utter a single word. "Ha ha ha. So the kid just wanted to play hide-and-seek with us!" _Only Yamamoto can say this..._ Tsuna thought, awkwardly. Gokudera, though acting grumpy with Yamamoto's remark, was actually pretty relieved that his friends forgave him.

 _Now I have to settle a score with a certain hitman …_ Nearly stomping over to their table, in an attempt to look imposing Tsuna looked down at his torturer, huffing. Reborn 'innocently' took a sip of his espresso, but unexpectedly made a face. "Fun time is over." Anything that Tsuna wanted to yell at his tutor had been washed away. Only in a crisis the sky guardian had felt this kind of intense dark aura that seemed to be emanating form Reborn now.

"Bitter."

All tension went off Tsuna, letting him fall to the ground, sweat dropping. "Reborn, just because your coffee-", but he had no time to finish his sentence because his tutor cut him off, addressing Yamamoto, he said: "You were about to tell Tsuna why Tsuyoshi and you are so troubled."

Putting his arms behind his head, the baseball idol answered with a serious expression: "Yeah. Actually we have normally some super well-known dishes that are ordered by many of our customers. But, since today we have not the needed ingredient to make them."

"I see. And, that missing ingredient would be?", inquired Reborn. "Eggs." Yamamoto responded blankly. Kyoko and Haru gasped.

Breathing deeply in, Reborn continued: "So, taking this into account, the closed pastry and my espresso, we have-" He was suddenly interrupted. "Baka-Reborn is forgetting LAMBO-SAN'S Candies!" The little bovine began to whine again.

But before the all-ready-super-annoyed hitman could proceed to torture...err..teach the child some manners as to not interrupt his speech, a yellow fluff ball came flying into TakeSushi, chirping the Namimori's school anthem and landed on Tsuna's soft brown hair, nestling itself there. Naturally, after Hibirde's entrance no one other than the school prefect of Nami-chuu appeared at the door. Like always Hibari was wearing his black school uniform with the Discipline Committee's badge attached to his left arm.

"For disturbing the peace of Namimori, I'll bite you to death!", steel grey eyes surrounded the group with one swift look, Tsuna gulped having the impression that his cloud guardian was practically killing him with his unsettling intense gaze.

Even so the little brunet gathered his almost non existing courage and squeaked: "Hibari-san! What are you talking about?"

"Hn." Pretending not to acknowledge neither the question nor the presence of that small herbivore the school perfect addressed Reborn directly: "Akanbo, you'd better keep your promise." Upon seeing the hit man's curt nod, Hibari's mouth formed into an insane smile, eyes gleaming with anticipation. With a wink from his hand he beckoned some one from outside TakeSuchi's in. The person with a hairstyle that gave him right away was no one other than Kusakabe, carried a notebook and went straight up to Reborn's table. After setting the device in front of the home tutor up, with a last affirmative nod from Hibari, Kusakabe began explaining: "As you all may have noticed the sugar-egg crisis has caused trouble all over Namimori." Everyone nodded in agreement. "But, the problem seems to have affected a far larger scale than any one of you might guess. After several investigations, we've been contacted by a person, famous for solving some pretty difficult criminal cases...", here Kusakabe paused rather dramatically, causing Tsuna and his friends to hold their breathes, "...due to obvious reasons his identity is highly classified, for the sake of identification he goes by the code name of L." At the mentioning of that name Reborn seemed to relax a little. Kusakabe went on: "So, he appears to have found some leads to this case and" - Hibari's right hand man gestured towards the laptop - "wants our collaboration." As if on a cue the screen of the laptop turned white displaying only one big black capital letter in Old English font:

L

Suddenly, a technically manipulated voice blared out of the speakers, announcing: "I am L." _Way to conceal your identity ... if I could do just the same... ._ Tsuna silently envied L a little bit for his 'freedom'.

The mechanic voice continued: "I apologize for any inconvenience that might occur, but the results of my investigations have led me right here, and although my accuracy rate is drastically sinking, I can't deny that in this whole incident there is something involving Vongola. Also, the sweet crises does not only involve Namimori or Japan, but practically the whole world is facing a bitter situation."

Not only Kyoko and Haru looked like doomsday had come, Tsuna noticed that Yamamoto tensed even more up, as did Reborn. And as funny as it may be, or he might just imagining things, but that modified voice as artificial as it was, sounded rather pained, as if L was suffering more than any one else because of this whole scenario. He wasn't sure if they could really trust this L person. On the other hand the Mafia boss in training couldn't take his sweet time now to assess the situation.

"Reborn, how can the Vongola be invol-?"

"I guess, I have the answer to your question, Tsunayoshi-san." A redhead wearing glasses joined the gathering at TakeSushi's.

"Shoichi-san?!", Tsuna exclaimed. Said boy was clasping his stomach with both hands and whispered: "Ow, ow, ow... . Heh." Adjusting his glasses, Shoichi stated: "We never imagined things would escalate like this, really." "Explain yourself already." Reborn was definitely on a short fuse. Shoichi gulped, getting nervous by the minute. Sighing, he said: "Ah, that's why I didn't want to agree with...but p-please calm down. The whole ordeal is n-not what it looks like. Ow, it's going to be easier to explain if everyone is here, so please come in...ow, ow." He nearly collapsed on the next best chair. (Poor cute Sho-chan...I wish I could hug him right now...).

Every gaze was fixed on the front door, where three figures entered the sushi restaurant one by one. "Shoichi...", a rather lazy voice said languidly, "I can't see the sweets here at all~". Shaking his head slightly, Shoichi answered: "Spanner, I never said that you'd find sweets here and you know that." Spanner feigned a disappointed look. "Yoyoyo! Judaime, you'll be very astonished with our new invention," said Giannini, appearing right behind Spanner, being quite in a joyful mood, despite the tense atmosphere.

Tsuna's eyes widened more and more in surprise, though he should be used to this kind of cracked up lifestyle by now. On the other hand, he might be excused since even THE Reborn looked rather off set by this more light-hearted change of pace. And, it was just getting better.

The last person to complete the gathering, greeted everybody with a cute smile. "Uncle Reborn, Tsunayoshi-san, I'm sorry for troubling you, but I hope after hearing me out, you'd accept my request." Reborn's facial complexion couldn't look more startled than when Tsuna met his home tutor for the first time and learnt that you'd never disrespect a teacher even if it was a 'baby', if you'd like to live for another day.

"Yuni," Reborn and Tsuna said simultaneously, the first gesturing for her to continue.

"Do you know which day today is?", the girl asked. "28th October", L answered immediately. "Exactly." Happy the Giglio Nero boss clapped in her hands. "This doesn't make any sens-," Gokudera wanted to interject, but was silenced on spot with a sharp glance of Reborn. Yuni with a grateful look went on: "Well, you may not know this but today is the birthday of someone I care a lot about and I wanted to make a surprise party for this friend of mine. He has a sweet tooth, so I thought of presenting him with lots of delicious pastries, or better marshmallows. As I began gathering information about how to best prepare such a party, I was suddenly joint by these three wonderful people," with a small smile she pointed to Shoichi, Spanner and Giannini, "it seemed they were developing together a kind of technology that could help me organize the surprise a little faster, and so I appreciated their help really, but..." Now her smile failed a little, and to every bodies surprise Spanner proceeded with the story: "We made a tiny miscalculation, so to speak." At this both he and Shoichi pretty much glared at Giannini, who was pretending not to understand the implication, and grin rather embarrassed averting his eyes to the ground, but then he blurted out: "I am really sorry, Juudaime! I … somehow...".

Spanner continued: "The Tele Mosca was working just fine, it should help Yuni teleport all the necessary ingredients for making marshmallows in no time...". Shoichi pick from here up: "...but due to unnecessary modifications and whatsoever, the Teleportation Mosca ended up transferring practically all sugar and egg supplies around the globe...".

"Isn't it possible to revert the teleportation?", L inquired pretty despaired. At this the three laughed a little, clearing her voice Yuni said: "Heh, this is actually no problem, I guess? Since, well the Tele Mosca is programmed to stop as soon as the party is over." "And what a about storage room for all the food that Mosca got?" "Ah, an excellent question, L-san," Shoichi answered, "we were also able to invent an infinite storage space … and it really works … probably...".

Feeling rather dumbfounded, Tsuna asked: "Let me see if I get this right because I thought there was no control over the situation, but in fact everything is okay?! But what about your request Yuni-san?"

Beaming she said: "I want to invite all of you to celebrate this birthday party I'm organizing for Byakuran."

Several seconds of silence passed until everyone went into a surprised:

"EEEHHHHHH?!"

"Ha ha ha." Yamamoto being the easy going person he was, adapted quickly with an open-minded attitude to the present circumstance. "It should be all right, ne Tsuna?"

"Che. Yakyuu baka, you really don't understand the trouble at all, do you?! Juudaime, there is no way-", but Tsuna interrupted him: "Well, it might be a good chance to create a better alliance between our families, and this is also a good lesson for a 'Mafia boss in training', don't you think so Reborn?" Tsuna glanced over to his home tutor, who under the shading of his fedora had an unreadable expression.

"Of course, if Juudaime says so...", Gokudera a bit embarrassed rapidly emended. Reborn hopped onto Yamamoto's shoulder and lifting his head he added: "Very well, Yuni. We shall accept your invitation." Looking at Haru and Kyoko, the little hit man said: "Looks like your problem's been solved in the best way possible." The two girls appeared to be already in an utter state of bliss, just thinking of the cakes they could eat at the party.

OMAKE – At the party

Although Tsuna felt a little awkward and tense after greeting Byakuran, but he was more than relieved and happy to see his friends and especially the girls enjoying themselves so much.

As for Byakuran, he was more than delighted with all the tons of marshmallows around him, teasing Shoichi the whole time in his sing sang voice: "Awww, I can't believe you would throw for me such a sweet party, Sho-chan~". Were as Shoichi vehemently denied all praises in bitter seriousness, stating every time: "Byakuran-san, this whole idea was Yuni's, if there is anyone you should be fussing about it's her...ow, ow."

There were some special guests as well. After all the trouble he had gone through, and suffered nearly an entire day without sweets, L was one of the honoured guests. Regardless the notion of protecting his identity, this world-renowned detective wasn't leaving the opportunity to refill his sugar needs. But for security's sake, he was very well hidden behind a wall of strawberry cakes, a tower of macarons and mille-feuilles.

All in all it was definitely a typically crazy, Tsuna would say Reborn Style Party, but for this night the little demon had left him a little bit of peace to enjoy the celebration as well. The brunet was more than thankful for this turn of events. Absent-minded he nibbled at his chocolate cake, and caught sight of another impressive looking person, whom he did not recognize. He had a natural silver haired perm with broad shoulders. He was wearing a white yukata with a blue swirl pattern on the end of the sleeves and the bottom, in a rather unusual way since only his left arm went through a sleeve, the right one hanging over his obi, underneath he wore a black shirt, as well as black pants and boots. A pretty fashionable clothing style, Tsuna surmised. By the looks of it he was convincing Byakuran to drop the marshmallows because parfaits were really the only perfect sweets in the whole universe.

Only Gintoki could sneak himself into a fan fiction just to eat cakes and strawberry parfaits for free~

~Owari~

Japanese vocabulary:

Midori tanabiku Namimori no – Namimori's school anthem

Nami-chuu (short for Namimori Chuugakou) – Namimori Middle School

Namahage – demon like creature from the Japanese folklore Haru likes to cosplay sometimes

Yakyuu baka – Baseball idiot

Teme – You (vulgar/offensive)

Juudaime - Tenth

Akanbo – Baby

omake – extra

yukata – summer kimono

obi – kimono belt

owari – the end


End file.
